Cheap Flights to Ireland

September 21, 2012 5:14 AM

Can someone recommend a good site or service that will notify me of cheap flights to Ireland from NJ and when they are available? I can be flexible about when to go, am not too good at searching through sites for fares. We had a great time there this summer and want to go again. Are there cheaper flights in the winter? I would like something specific to Ireland, not cheap flights everywhere in general.
posted by mermayd to Travel & Transportation (5 answers total)

You can set up flight alerts; this article rounds up some general advice on when to buy. Have you been put on Aer Lingus's mailing list? I flew them once to get around the volcano troubles, really nice crew, and they keep trying to tempt me back with winter fares and hotel packages (right now they're offering winter sales of $549 RT from the US to Ireland.) They fly out of JFK, not sure if that's close enough to your NJ base.
posted by jetlagaddict at 5:31 AM on September 21, 2012

Skyscanner is great; you can see flights between airports/areas for a whole month and stop where the cheap flights are.

In general flights & hotels will be cheaper outside of popular times; avoid summer and christmas. The downside is that Ireland will be more likely to be grey and damp...
posted by BadMiker at 6:29 AM on September 21, 2012

Airfarewatchdog lets you set up very specific alerts
posted by dbmcd at 6:56 AM on September 21, 2012

Thanks everyone, I will look into all of these. JFK is fairly awful to reach from here as we must go through NYC, but it may be worth the savings. Newark airport is less than a half hour away when traffic is not bad. I have relatives in Co Galway we can stay with and they can pick us up at Shannon. I knew Metafilter would be the fastest way to get some answers.
posted by mermayd at 3:36 PM on September 21, 2012

I usually use Kayak. From the NYC area you can fly direct to Ireland with Aer Lingus and Continental.

Also check out aerlingusvacationstore.com, they're not directly related to Aer Lingus but are a US Travel Agency. Sometimes they have good package deals, but beware of the deals with the rental cars, when you arrive you still have to pay for insurance (your CC will not cover car insurance in Ireland) and it's often cheaper to pre-book a car with Hertz and include insurance (via the link from Aer Lingus's website) that to get the car that Aer Lingus Vacations includes.
posted by zaphod at 5:14 PM on September 22, 2012